Fruity winter salad with maple-mustard vinaigrette
Be prepared for lots of rain, wind and frost
Learn how to buy and care for the tropical flowers
Healthy soil is crucial for our plants and our environment
Get to work on trimming bushes and coaxing dormancy
A striking coleus and a mini kabocha among the award winners
Come meet (and take home) shelter pups at Roseville site
A Sunday recipe for a cold winter day
December gets off to a welcome soggy start
Street pile pick-up through Jan. 23 in Sacramento
Stroll the grounds and residence during the December open house
Sacramento's overdue for a good soaking
Dog adoptions, music and more at special event in Oak Park
East Sacramento tradition features five designer-decorated homes
'Rubied sprouts' feature two seasonal favorites
After sunny days, change is in the air; rain's due Thursday
Elk Grove garden store hosts family fun along with sale
Celebrate, learn about and purchase California natives
Just in time for fall color, a new self-guided tour teaches about varieties on campus
Fun outdoor events at the Carmichael nature center this weekend
Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.